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Michael Douglas has always excelled at playing self-absorbed jerks, so it’s good to see that he isn’t mellowing much as he enters his twilight years. And So It Goes kicks off with Douglas already at maximum obnoxiousness as Oren Little, a retired real estate agent without a kind word for anybody—not even for Leah (Diane Keaton), an eminently lovable tenant in the apartment complex where Oren has taken up residence while he tries to sell his house.

The two are forced to bond quickly, however, when Oren’s estranged son (Scott Shepherd), who’s headed to prison, unexpectedly drops off a granddaughter Oren didn’t even know he had. Leah reluctantly agrees to help out with the surrogate parenting, for the little girl’s sake, but it’s the Little man she predictably winds up caring for in the long run.

Rob Reiner directs this formulaic piffle (written by As Good as It Gets’ Mark Andrus) with the broad clunkiness that’s infected his work for the past two decades; as in The Bucket List, though, the film’s stars use sheer charisma to bulldoze through the soggier bits. Plus, Leah is a lounge singer, and any excuse to hear Keaton perform standards (even if the script requires her to constantly break down crying halfway through) is acceptable.